Private housing | Switzerland
17 februari
Project: Private housing, Küttigen // Switzerland
Architect: Zubler AG, Hunzenschwil // Switzerland
Fabricator + Installer: Zubler AG, Hunzenschwil // Switzerland
Façade System: Riveted/Screwed
Year of Construction: 2022
Product: ALUCOBOND® PLUS vintage Rough Concrete
Photos: Allega GmbH
Perfect Patina
Küttigen is located at a point where the Jura Mountains taper off towards the east and only a narrow ridge remains. The town, separated by the River Aare from its bigger neighbour, Aarau, is growing because the commute to both Basel and Zurich is easy and it is also a cheaper place to live. A place which is also just as beautiful. There are numerous sunny hillside building plots in the undulating landscape where houses built on several levels (like rice terraces) enjoy views into the far distance. Just like this refurbishing project on one of Küttigen's western slopes. The property’s orientation is, at one and the same time, a benefit and a drawback: the side facing the sun where the property’s private garden is situated is also the access side and visible from the road. This posed no problem for the architects who made the most of the topography by planning underground access to the house underneath the terrace. Anyone standing on the road in front of the building can see a
concrete wall covered in greenery which opens up on one side into a cavern. This deep excavation into the slope is where the house entrance and garage are located. Not even the stepped, terraced levels of the house itself can be seen from the road, as it stands a few metres above street level on the rear border of the plot. So entry to the house is via the basement, and after climbing the internal staircase up to the living level, there is a surprise in store: a panorama unfolds which stretches the entire length of the glazed west side over the terrace, over the garden and house roofs into the green hills and mountains. The house is only just over seven metres deep meaning every corner of the house offers a front row seat for the landscape cinema. The third floor is set back by another three metres to make room for a roof terrace with spectacular views. Light, views and landscape have always been this house’s inner qualities. However, the outer shell had become outdated and updating it to an energy-efficient façade presented a perfect opportunity to improve the façade material, grid pattern and proportions. ALUCOBOND® vintage Rough Concrete panels replaced the old cladding. Naturally, you would expect a house built in the Swiss mountains to feature the finest exposed concrete, and the neighbouring properties are designed in exactly this way: interconnecting houses built using concrete and glass. The clients’ choice of ALUCOBOND® for the cladding rather than exposed concrete has many advantages: firstly, the material is robust and lightweight, which makes renovating existing brickwork easy and then the panels are also space-saving as they are very slender. In addition, aesthetics play a role: the older houses in the neighbourhood also reveal that dark streaks appear as concrete ages. But vintage Rough Concrete ALUCOBOND® looks like exposed concrete with the perfect patina, distinctively matured, without moss, algae or streaks. While real exposed concrete needs to be renovated after a few decades, the ALUCOBOND® concrete look remains permanently unblemished, beautiful and inviting.